Railway-tie



No. 748,606. PATENTBD JAN. 5, 1904.

J. HORR.

RAILWAY TIE.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 297. 1903-.

H0 MODEL.

VUNITED STATES Patented January 5, 1904.

JACOB HORR, or MEOIOSBURG, OHIO.

RAILWAY-TIE.

SPECIFICATION forming'fpart of Letters Patent No. 748,606, dated January 5, 1904.

Application filed July 27, 1903. Serial No. 167,077. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB HORR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Mechanicsburg, in the county of Champaign and State in the fastening of the rails thereto are con.

cerned.

To these ends the invention consists in certain novel features, which I will now proceed to describe and will then particularly point out in the claims In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a longitudinal sectional View of a railway-tie embodying my invention in one form. Fig. 2 is a similar view illustrating a modification; and Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken on the line or: fr of Fig. l and looking in the direction of the arrows.

In carrying out my invention I make the body of the tie of a cementitious composition, preferably gravel, sand, and cement, which will harden and form practically an artificial stone. The upper or exposed surface of the tie is of wood, removably secured to the concrete body by bolting it thereto. of this construction the body of the tie, which is embedded in the earth, is composed of a durable, heavy, and inexpensive material which will not rot or decay, while the surface or upper portion is elastic or resilient, so Vas,

By reason l concrete body (indicated at 4) rise above the bottom of the Wooden portion and preferably flush with the top thereof, so as to aid in bolding the wooden portion in place, forming abutments which prevent end motion thereof. The cement body does not, however, rise as high as the top of the Wooden portion at the sides thereof, said woodenportion beingpreferably ofthe same Width as the cement body, as shown in Fig. 3. The rails, which are indicated at 5, therefore rest entirely upon the wood and have the benefit of the cushioning effect due to its resilience. The rails may obviously be fastened directly to the Wood by means of spikes 6 in the usual manner, thereby dispensing with the employment of special fastening devices or cushioning devices.

The Wooden and concrete portions of the tie are connected by bolts 7, passing from the concrete body up through the wooden portion and providedon their projecting ends with nuts 8. I prefer to employ as an anchoring device for the heads of .the bolts a strip or strips of Wood 9, embedded in the under side of the concrete body, so as to be flush with the under side thereof, and provided with recesses 10, in which the heads 11 of the bolts 7 are countersunk. Of course the anchoring-strip 9 need not be in a single piece, nor is it necessary that the bolt-heads should be countersunk therein. By thus bolting the wooden portion of the tie to the concrete portion said Wooden portion may be readily removed and renewed when necessary. The concrete body is ofcourse more durable than the wooden portion and the renewal of the comparatively small Wooden portion is much less expensive than the replacing of an entire tie of wood. It will be noted that the tie proper is constructed entirely of concrete and wood without the employment of any metallic reinforcing parts, the bolts serving merely to unite the wooden portions lying on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the tie and said Wooden portions serving as reinforcing devices. Where the Wooden portion Slis contin uous,as in the construction shown in Fig. 1, it serves to hold and iirmly connect the rails and prevent any lateral separation thereof.

The invention is of course susceptible of embodiment in various forms. Forinstance, I have 'shown in Fig. 2 a construction in which the wooden upper portion of the tie is not continuous or in a single piece, but is made in two separate pieces, (indicated by the numeral 12,) one located under each rail, the two being separated by an upward extension 13 of the concrete body.

Numerous other modifications will readily suggest themselves, and the application of the invention is not limited to railway crossties, but may be employed in connection with similar structures-such as switch-ties, cattle-guard timbers, bridge ties and timbers, and posts. I therefore do not wish to be understood as limiting my invention strictly to the precise details of construction hereinbefore described, and shown in the accompanying drawings.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure b Letters Patent, is-

l. A railway-tie or similar structure'comprisinga body composed of cementitious coinposition, wooden portions embedded 4therein on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis thereof, and bolts connecting said wooden portions and passing through the composition body at right angles to the longitudinal axis thereof, substantially as described.

2. A railway-tie comprising a body composed of a cementitious composition, an npper portion of wood embedded therein and having a width equal to the width of the composition, and a length less than the length of said body, but greater than the distance between the rails, to constitute a bearing and connecting member for said rails, a second wooden portion embedded in the under side of said composition body longitudinally thereof, and bolts'connecting said two wooden portions and passing through the composition body at right angles to the longitudinal axis thereof, substantially as described.

3. A railway tie comprising a concrete body, a wooden bearing portion embedded in the upper portion thereof, a wooden anchoring portion embedded in the lower portion thereof, and bolts having their heads bearing in said anchoring portion and their bodies extending through the remaining portions of the tie and provided with nuts on their upper ends, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JACOB HORR.

Witnesses:

ROBT. CHENEY, EARL FOX. 

